Rain-Fish
by Rainbowserpent
Summary: Here is a Neville and Luna oneshot, a little random...for my friend, all about Neville, Luna, fish and rain! (Yes, it will make mores sense when you read it...haha, are you intrigued?) ;)


_A brief oneshot about Luna and Neville for my friend Rainbowgirl._

* * *

Rain-Fish

_By Rainbowserpent_

Neville fidgeted and fretted, twisting his hands together, sitting on the window sill as he gazing out the rain-spattered window.

He was thinking, as usual, of her. With her waist-long curly blonde hair, beautiful orb-like silvery eyes, and a soft, dreamy voice, Neville never seemed to stop thinking that Luna Lovegood was an angel.

Some people thought her strange, because she talked about strange and fantastical creatures which nobody had heard of before, like Wrackspurts Nargles, Dhixies and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. But they were wrong, thought Neville. Luna knew far more than they did, and the thing was that she was never fazed by their teasing and taunting, as wise as an owl, she knows better than to retaliate to their petty remarks. She had proves herself a hundred times over every day, thought Neville, slightly gloomily.

Neville sighed, and shifted position on the window sill. Luna was so brave, yet _he_, a sixth year, couldn't even work up the courage to tell her he liked her. Neville pulled Trevor, his toad, out of the pocket of his robes, and stroked the wriggling animal as it fought to be free.

'Why does everything have to be so complicated Trevor?' muttered Neville, stroking the slimy green animal, 'How can I tell her? If she doesn't like me…'

Sighing and looking around he caught sight of his schoolwork, laid out on a desk, and, stuffing Trevor quickly back into his pocket as the ill-behaved pet squirmed and fought, he sat down with a melancholy sinking in the pit of his stomach. Demanding attention was an essay for Snape, the potions master, who loathed Neville in every essence of his being.

_Write a 2000-3000 word essay on the harvesting time for different plants such as monkshood, asphodel, grünebloom, wormroot and fliteseed._

Neville blinked. How could he concentrate? His mind wandered aimlessly to what he'd had to breakfast, what lessons were yesterday, what his gran would be doing (dusting the taxidermy collection of her great-great-grandfather's), and what Luna would be doing right now…

He found himself drifting off to sleep with a soft voice he knew oh so well calling gently, 'Neville…'

He was in a sunlit field, full of flowers and butterflies, and there, illuminated by a ray of sunlight, was Luna, her golden hair flowing out like silk, her eyes dancing, calling him…suddenly with a loud thunderclap, the sky was split in half by a brilliant white light, a lightning bolt. The scene dissolved around him, and all he could see was Luna, lost and alone, wet and cold and shivering, as torrents of rain poured down on her. There was another peal of thunder, and a tear streaked down Luna's face. 'Neville…' she whimpered quietly, and as another loud crash of thunder and lighting split over Neville's head, he knew awoke, and immediately knew what to do.

Leaping up, Neville tore from the Common Room, through the portrait hole ('Excuse me!' barked the Fat Lady who had been asleep, 'It's past curfew! I say-! Go to bed!') and down the corridor, tripping over his robes and stumbling down the marble staircase.

Leaping the next few steps, Neville veered left suddenly down a thin corridor, then out into a sweeping staircase. As he pounded down it, Neville suddenly found himself colliding headlong with a group of several people, dripping wet and looking downcast.

'Neville?' came Harry's voice, 'are you alright?'

'Neville!' said Ginny, extracting herself from the group of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean and a few fifth-year friends of Ginny's that Neville knew only by sight, 'Luna's gone missing! She hasn't been seen since lunch time. We think she might be out in the rain-!'

'I know,' said Neville quickly, sprinting down the stairs, glancing back to see Ginny standing there with her mouth open, the rest of them staring after her, 'I know where she is,' he said quietly.

Bursting into the Entrance Hall and pushing open the doors, Neville ran as fast as he could down the sloping lawns as steely grey sheets of rain attacked him. Shivering, Neville tried to recall the dream…where had she been crouching?

Racking through his brain, Neville summoned up the image. There was Luna, soaking wet, tears tracking down her face, mingling with the raindrops there…she was beside a large body of water. Two words appeared in Neville's mind: the lake.

Slowing to a jog, Neville made his way to the gradually swelling lake, its banks slippery and treacherous.

It took him ten minutes, skirting the lake and the Forbidden Forest, but finally, now soaked to the bone, he came across a small, huddled figure, long blonde hair trailing in the mud.

'Luna!' he cried loudly.

Another thunderclap sounded, and a bright white flash of lightning rent the air in half, and she looked up.

'What are you doing here Neville?' asked Luna softly.

Neville sat down beside her, almost slipping over, 'I-I'm searching for you,' he stuttered.

'Well you've found me.'

There was a silence.

'So what happens now?' said Neville, their knees almost touching, 'do we just sit here?'

'Yes,' answered Luna simply. 'Daddy's asked me to find a Floating Cribulous Fish.'

'A _what_?' asked Neville, eyebrows knotting together as rain poured down his face.

'A Floating Cribulous Fish,' said Luna, 'they're very rare. Daddy says if we can find one it will be in the Daily Prophet for sure, and we might earn enough money to pay off the mortgage on our house.' Neville looked at her quizzically, 'We're poor Neville. We were never rich, but since my mother died, Daddy's done no work other than the _Quibbler_, which does not earn much money…we'll have to sell our house soon,' she whispered.

'Oh,' said Neville awkwardly, not knowing what to say. They sat in companionable silence for a while. 'So…what does this Floating Crucible-'

'Cribulous,' corrected Luna.

'Yes, Cribulous Fish, have to do with sitting out here and getting wet?'

'They're attracted to wet environments. I'm hoping to catch it. If I sit here long enough I'll lure it in.'

'O-kay…what's your bait?' said Neville, who had gone fishing with his great-uncle once and ended up falling into the river when his fishing rod got caught in a clump of reeds, needing to be fished out by some muggles that came by who were water-skiing.

'I'm the bait.'

'You're WHAT?!' said Neville, shocked.

'I'm the bait. These fish like human tears, so if I sit here and cry they should come.'

'That sounds cheery,' muttered Neville. 'What are you crying about then?'

'I just think about my mum mainly,' said Luna, 'she died when I was eight.'

'I'm sorry,' said Neville quickly, 'But-why? Why does this fish need tears-it seems a bit…hard on yourself?'

'Because-well…that's what it likes,' said Luna, 'and I'm trying to catch it…so I must do whatever I have to.'

'Well I think it's silly,' said Neville huffily, 'why make yourself upset Luna?'

Luna just shrugged and they sat there together in the pouring rain.

'I've never really liked the rain,' Neville admitted after a while.

'Me either,' said Luna placidly.

They talked idly about lessons and what was for dinner, and then they began to talk about their childhood: about Neville's Gran and Luna's father, about the strange expeditions Luna went on in the holidays, and about Neville's duty of polishing his Gran's teaspoon collection. They talked about Hermione's campaign to set House-Elves free (S.P.E.W), and how Harry must feel without any parents-Neville found this subject rather painful to talk about, as both his parents had suffered a fate worse than death, driven insane by Bellatrix Lestrange, so that neither Frank nor Alice Longbottom even recognised their own son-how Ginny was always so nice, Ron sometimes quite rude; why Filch was so grumpy; the Quidditch scores and how competitive everyone was about it; the different Houses; and finally, how everyone was going out with people these days.

'Well Ginny's very nice and very pretty, so obviously she's into the whole game of going out with people,' said Luna airily, inspecting her fingernails. 'She's quite a good friend you know-if not a little prone to Wrackspurts: they're attracted to red hair, did you know? But I don't know how many times she's gone out with various different people this year.'

'What about you?' asked Neville, trying to sound casual.

'Me?' asked Luna loftily, her expression puzzled, 'I'm a lunatic, apparently. Who in their right mind would go out with _me_?'

'I-' Neville gulped. It was now or never. 'I-Luna, there's something I need to say to you. It's-um-kind of, er…hard to say…I've been trying to for a while but I don't quite know how to say it…uh…I, um,' he turned bright scarlet.

'Yes Neville?' said Luna.

'I…um, I um…' muttered Neville, colouring.

Luna, a Ravenclaw, and by no means unintelligent looked at him with a knowing smile.

'Oh, I think I get what you mean,' said Luna in her floating, soft voice.

'Y-you do, I don't really know how to tell you though-it's a bit strange, I, uh…I'm still not quite sure how to say it-'

'Neville…'

'-It's sort of strange because my Gran made me recite Shakespeare poetry so you think I'd know some love poems or something in a situation like-well, er…'

'Neville stop it I know exactly what you mean.'

'-But it's really quite awkward and I'm sure you don't feel the same way-'

Luna leaned in and kissed him, finally putting an end to Neville's long stream of babbling nonsense. A golden ray of sunshine burst through the clouds, and put them in a spotlight of heavenly light. They broke apart to gaze in wonder at this amazing natural phenomenon, as the ray of light began to fade quickly.

'Luna,' said Neville, 'I really like you.'

'It took you a while to say that,' said Luna, 'luckily for you though, I figured it out long ago.'

'I-I'm sorry?'

'Of course, it was quite easy to realize, as you wrote me a Valentine's Day card.'

'B-but I signed that "your secret admirer"!' spluttered Neville.

'Yes but I saw you slip it into my bag during Charms. It wasn't that subtle.'

Neville turned beetroot red, and muttered something inaudible about 'tradition' and 'my Gran' then he finally managed to say 'S-sorry.'

'What are you saying sorry for?' asked Luna, 'it was the sweetest card. Now I want one every year!'

'R-really?'

'Yes,' said Luna, kissing him again. 'This time,' she added, 'marked "with much love, Neville".'

'I-you…really?'

'Yes,' said Luna, her whole face lit up in a smile, 'because I really like you too, Neville.'

Neville couldn't believe this moment had finally come. He had worried about this for more than a year now, and Luna actually liked him! A small tear of joy trickled down his face, and suddenly with a loud splashing sound, an enormous rainbow fish burst from the water, lapping up the tear and then flopping around on his lap.

'Oh my god! It's the Floating Cribulous Fish!' gasped Luna, quickly pulling out her wand and conjuring up a revolving sphere of water. Neville heaved the ginormous fish into its strange tank, and flashed Luna a smile.

'Thank you Neville,' she said, kissing him on the cheek, 'Daddy will be so pleased! I'll let him know-he can come to Hogsmeade tomorrow!'

Though Neville was wondering how Luna would be able to keep a giant revolving sphere of water in the Ravenclaw Common Room until tomorrow, he was only partly thinking about that-the other three quarters of his brain was doing a strange victory dance, and he reached up to feel his cheek where Luna had kissed it, because he was sure it was on fire.

When the others questioned Neville and Luna about where they had been they both smiled, hand in hand, Luna Levitating the Floating Cribulous Fish, and said, 'We love the rain.'


End file.
